It's that time of the year again when drug companies, doctors, government officials and media conduct a national advertising campaign to sell flu shots to every American.1, 2, 3 You can't pass by a pharmacy,4 enter a supermarket,5 shop in a "big box" store6 or catch a plane7 without seeing the "flu shots for sale" signs trolling for customers.

The pharmaceutical industry is cutting out the M.D. middleman and going straight for the gold in places where we shop for toothpaste, clothes and food.8 Even on the evening news, flu shot commercials are becoming as frequent as political campaign ads.

Up until the year 2000, flu shots were not recommended for everyone. Back in the 1990's, doctors were telling seniors over age 65 and younger people with chronic illness to get vaccinated. 9

No Flu Shot? No Job or Daycare!

Now, doctors at the CDC tell every man, woman and child over six months old they need an annual flu shot10 and it is OK for health care workers to be fired if they don't get vaccinated every year.11, 12, 13, 14

In the states of Connecticut and New Jersey, mandates are already in place that force parents to give their six-month old babies a flu vaccine or be banned from daycare.15 This, as state health department officials join with medical trade association lobbyists in many states to severely restrict or eliminate medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions for all children.16, 17

The vaccine liability shield that Congress gave doctors and drug companies in 198618 and the public-private business partnership between government and the pharmaceutical industry that Congress created after Sept. 11, 2001,19, 20 is paying big dividends for liability free drug companies and liability free doctors selling flu shots to more than 300 million Americans.

It doesn't matter if 80 percent of all flu-like illness is really caused by other viruses and bacteria and not influenza,21, 22 or that flu vaccine efficacy is estimated at 60 percent to 80 percent, depending upon age and what kind of vaccine is given.23

Selling Big Mortality Numbers to Sell Flu Vaccine

The selling of influenza vaccine has a lot to do with selling big morbidity and mortality numbers. So how bad were those numbers in the late 20th century to justify government taking a "no exceptions" cradle to the grave approach to flu shots for every American in the 21st century? Let's take a quick look at the hype versus the evidence.

The first experimental influenza vaccines were given to soldiers in World War II. It wasn't until the 1957-58 and 1968-69 influenza pandemics that the vaccine was marketed to civilians.24 Between 1970 and 2000, the trivalent influenza vaccine containing two strains of type A influenza and one strain of type B influenza was primarily recommended for the elderly. That is because respiratory infections, especially with pneumonia complications, have always been a leading cause of death for people at the end of their life span.25

There was only one deadly influenza pandemic in the last 100 years that killed the young and healthy in great numbers and that was the 1918 Spanish Flu. It turns out that bacterial pneumonia is what killed most people, young or old, in the 1918 pandemic. Today, antibiotics would have prevented most of those deaths.26

But just how bad is seasonal influenza today?

Is It 200,000 Influenza Hospitalizations or 37,000?

The CDC has been telling the public for nearly a decade that there are more than 200,000 estimated hospitalizations and 36,000 estimated deaths from influenza in the U.S. every year.27

But are those figures accurate? Well, it all depends upon use of the word "estimate." The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that, in 2004, there were about 37,000 Americans hospitalized for either influenza or another illness in addition to influenza, and patients over age 85 were twice as likely to die.28

Now, 37,000 influenza hospitalizations is five times less than the 200,000 hospitalization figure the CDC uses. That is because what CDC employees did to come up with their influenza hospitalization "estimate" was to count a lot of people hospitalized between 1979 and 2001 – not just with influenza but also with pneumonia, respiratory and circulatory illnesses – which they counted as probably associated with influenza.29, 30

And they got away with it.

Counting Influenza Deaths & A Whole Lot More

In 2003, CDC employees also used a convoluted statistical modeling scheme to "estimate" that 36,000 people die from influenza in the U.S. every year. Again, they counted not just influenza death cases but also threw in other respiratory, circulatory, cardiac and pulmonary deaths they thought might have been associated with influenza.31

And they got away with it.

In 2005, a young PhD candidate at MIT published an article in the British Medical Journal and asked the question: "Are U.S. Flu Death Figures More PR Than Science?"32 He analyzed the U.S. Vital Statistics Mortality Data, which has been carefully recorded for more than a century by the National Center for Health Statistics. I recently looked at that Vital Statistics data, too, and created a chart of influenza and pneumonia deaths recorded between 1940 and 2010.33

Recorded Influenza Deaths Dropping in 21st Century

Here is what I found: Since 1940, the highest number of influenza deaths recorded in a single year was 21,047 deaths in 1941. In fact, the mortality rate from influenza was NOT rising in the late 20th century – as the CDC employees have alleged – it was dropping.

There were only between 600 and 750 influenza deaths recorded annually between 1995 and 1997.34 The most influenza deaths recorded in a single year since 1979 was about 2,900 deaths and that was in 2009, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic year! (see table here)

CDC Expanding the Flu Vaccine Market Between 2000-2010

But that didn't stop CDC policymakers, along with drug company and medical trade association lobbyists ever present at the policymaking table, from using inflated influenza hospitalization and mortality estimates to justify expanding the influenza vaccine market:

In 2000, CDC policymakers voted to expand flu shot recommendations to all healthy Americans over age 50.35 Out of a population of 300 million, there were 1,765 recorded influenza deaths that year.

In 2002, CDC voted to add all healthy babies from six to 23 months.36 There were 727 recorded influenza deaths that year.

In 2006, CDC voted to recommend flu shots for all healthy children up to five years old as well as all healthy pregnant women in any trimester.37 There were 849 recorded influenza deaths that year.

In 2007, CDC voted to add all healthy children up to eight years old.38 There were 411 recorded influenza deaths that year.

In 2008, CDC voted to recommend annual flu shots for all healthy children up to age 18 years.39 There were 1,722 recorded influenza deaths that year.

In 2009, the Secretaries of Health and Homeland Security declared a national emergency because they said pandemic H1N1 swine flu was sweeping the country and tens of thousands of people could die. Liability free drug companies were told to rush an experimental swine flu vaccine to the market.40

In 2010, a year when there were 494 recorded influenza deaths, the CDC officials finally reached the ultimate goal of their long game: they told doctors to give annual flu shots to every American, healthy or not, from the year of birth to the year of death.41

And they got away with it.

CDC Does Not Require States to Report All Influenza Cases or Deaths

They got away with it because the CDC does not require states to "report individual seasonal flu cases or deaths of people older than 18 years of age."42 That's right – the CDC is not actually asking for the information they need to accurately assess influenza morbidity and mortality in the U.S. It would be funny if people weren't actually losing their jobs or being denied daycare or becoming paralyzed43, 44 by this "no exceptions" flu shot policy.

Global Flu Vaccine Market: U.S. Biggest Customer

Today, the global market for seasonal influenza vaccine is $3.6 billion and forecasters have recently reported that the U.S. is the single biggest and most profitable market in the world.45 They say the huge U.S. market is "driven by price increases" and high vaccine coverage rates generated by the 2009 influenza pandemic and the government's "universal" flu shot recommendation in 2010. They add that "campaigning by U.S. authorities" will continue to drive up flu shot sales.

CDC: We Don't Know How Many Influenza Deaths There Are

Meanwhile, doctors at the CDC now quietly admit on their website that the "CDC does not know exactly how many people die from seasonal flu each year."46 Having gotten that cradle to the grave flu shot recommendation firmly in place, they are backing away from the 36,000 influenza death figure. CDC now says that "only 8.5 percent of all pneumonia and influenza deaths and only 2.1 percent of all respiratory and circulatory deaths" are influenza related.

You can almost hear those liability free drug companies and doctors laughing all the way to the bank.

Thank you for all of your thorough information and references/citations to back everything up. I truly wish more people would write articles in this manner. We seem to blindly accept anothers word for fact. So thank you again.

It would be an interesting study to learn in a given period of time the number of Americans in each age group, the number of flu vaccines given or received in each age group, and then another category for number of flu related deaths within each age group. It would then have to be weighed as to whether or not the flu vaccine was truly preventative or over kill.

There seems to be too many variables as well, such as people choosing to have a healthier lifestyle, taking precautions and doing things to protect their immune systems, more hand washing in hospitals, sterilization factors, not getting the vaccine, etc., etc.

Again I cannot thank you enough for doing all of the hard work and putting the numbers together as I hope this gives people a reason to take their health back into their own hands and make decisions for themselves.

Thank you Barbara for a factual presentation of the numbers as they are currently provided or known. It would be interesting to understand the seasonal mortality averages in other countries where the immunizations are not pushed as publicly to compare the effectiveness of this campaign. Does it make any difference?

I'm wondering how many of those immunized against the flu were the in number of flu cases every year (and hospitalized). It is my experience that practically everyone I know who gets the flu shot gets sick with the flu immediately following the shot. I think it's insane! If you want to get the flu every year, make sure you get the flu shot.

I'm wondering how many of those immunized against the flu were the in number of flu cases every year (and hospitalized). It is my experience that practically everyone I know who gets the flu shot gets sick with the flu immediately following the shot. I think it's insane! If you want to get the flu every year, make sure you get the flu shot.

I had a healthy 80 year old friend who had a flu shot and caught the flu from taking it. She was very, very ill and when she recovered she didn't have the vigor she had before and died a couple of years later.

She would probably have lived until 90 without that shot.

Get Big Brother out of the business of taking away our choices to our own lives. I don't take a flu shot, and think it is just awful that people in the health care or child care industry have to take the shots.

After listening to this clip...i will continue to get the flu shot..way too many iffs. I wonder how many deaths there might have been had not so many people received a flu shot.There has been dementia long before the flu shots were even thought about..I am 71 and a retired nurse..have had a flu shot as long back as i can remember and have many mercury fillings in my mouth . no signs of dementia..sounds like this woman is grasping at straws.

Thank you, Barbara and NVIC, for all the tremendous and valuable work you do. I am seeing lots of people around town with "I got my flu shot" buttons; I have started telling them to go to the NVIC website. I have been writing letters to the editor and have been on the local public radio station to counter the ubiquitous vaccine propaganda. I am going to create a button that says "Ask me why I did NOT get the flu shot." I'm retired from allopathic practice (and avoided all drugs/vaccines/etc.when I was in practice,) but still practice homeopathy and advise people about real food.

Please let me know if there is something I can do to help further the NVIC work. Thank you, Marnie Vail, MSS,MD

having worked in nursing homes for a few years i can only say we had more deaths shortly after flu shots were administered; i had a flu shot once in my life and i was never so sick for 2 weeks straight in my whole life! so for all people out there who want to continue their annual flu shot, please go ahead! for me and those who do not want one do not push them on us! when the mercury builds up in your brains don't say you have not been warned here - but wait, you will not remember this....

Thank you very much for all the updates on vaccination informations. I have benefited a lot from your site. You have change me regarding vaccinating my children since then had less ER visits. I have also started educating my community about vaccines because they have many,many children who are autistic.

I come from a different perspective. My seven year old son did die from Influenza A in 2007, so I know people die from the flu, personally. However, I still would never vaccinate my kids or family from the flu EVER, even having a child die from it. The horrific levels of poisons are far worse than the slim chance my child would get one of the THREE strains they include. In fact, the strain my son caught was not even included in the vaccine that year, so it wouldn't have matter anyway. I would rather take the risks, which are very slight, than inject poison into my children. And that is coming from a mom whose son is one of the statistics here.

I am 1 of 3 Chiropractors that volunteer at Merillac Clinic which is the St. Mary's Hospital low cost health care clinic here in Grand Junction, CO. A couple of weeks ago the volunteer coordinator contacted us saying personnel was requiring all workers including non-patient contact workers to have the flu vaccine by Nov. 1st or they would no longer be allowed to work. All 3 of us have declined the vaccine. The other 2 won't be back until April when the mandate period is over. I choose to stay through Oct. It will be interesting to see how many fellow workers get sick as my department's flu clinic was 10/4. I will keep you posted.

I cannot believe that we blindly trust doctors in this day and age where information is on the web and easily accessible. The days where only a doctor had access to medical information are over. I tell everybody to do their research. Ms. Batista - my sympathies and still you are smart enough to see the big picture and refuse to vaccinate - good for you! Stay strong!My hairdresser's husband died 3 years ago from a very agressive brain tumor. No family history but he got his flu shots every year and got the flu every year. He continued his flu shots even though he got sick every year His wife asked him why he is doing this when he still gets sick. I wonder myself. Even attorneys I work with get their flu shots. I tell everybody about the mercury and other horrifically harmful ingredients in these shots. I tell everybody the word vaccine should NOT give you the warm fuzzies!!!! It should strike fear in you! Our human rights are seriously being impacted and violated when we are being told we have to get a flu vaccine (or any other vaccine for that matter). Nurses are being told to get them or loose their job! If the flu shot can actually give you the flu, then why would a nurse be required to get the shot? I have a co-worker whose mother got a stroke just a couple of days after her first flu shot. Coincidence? Maybe, but if this woman was otherwise healthy, what would have caused the stroke? I read enough to know that it was the mercury in the flu shot. I am so glad I never got one and neither did my daughter. We all need to realize this: we are being lied to for the sake of profit and for fear of mass panic and mass lawsuits. WAKE UP - we are all being fooled by Big Pharma!

Thank you so much for this information. Just curious..does the rise in flue deaths have anything to do with the ever increasing population? More people - more deaths? Personally, i don't get the flue shot, last time i did ( I think it was 2004 or 2005) I wound up getting the flu. No shot, no flu.

For years all that I hear from folks I know is," the year I got a flu shot was the worse flu I ever had."I agree, " I never had the flu until the year I had my son and my trusted Dr. Recommended one for me and my son. It nearly killed us."

Thank you NVIC for all you do. My family has many generations without vaccinations and our family members are healthier and our kids are top of their class in school as well as great athletes. I believe when you vaccinate it compromises the immune system therefore weakening it. Your immune system is now weakened from constantly defending against all the disease & toxins from vaccines so it makes it more difficult to fight off illnesses. If you treat your body properly with a good diet & exercise, then it can make its own natural chemicals and antibodies to fight off things like the common cold or flu. Im proud to say that I am 37 years old and I have never been to a doctor or hospital with an illness. I maybe get the flu once every 5 years and I cope with it on a natural basis. I feel we, as humans, all need to evolve past this day and age where popping pills for every pain and injecting our bodies with deadly toxins is considered acceptible.

I respect a person's caution regarding vaccines, and I respect scientific research. It seems odd that we reject doctors and peer-reviewed research in favor of anecdotal evidence. After quite a bit of research, my kids received all the recommended vaccines and are also smart, affable and healthy--no ear infections, allergies, trips to the ER. I and many people I know have received flu vaccines and never gotten sick from them or caught the flu. Can I argue the vaccine prevented it? Of course not, but my point is everyone has an anecdote, so perhaps those stories are not what we should use to make such important decisions. What scientific research does this article cite? All sources link to articles published by NVIC, which I find troubling. Rather than going by our gut or assuming the expertise of medical professionals is not a valid factor to even consider, why not put more money into scientific studies funded by unbiased sources? I always educate myself to make informed decisions, but I also listen to both sides with caution. Beware of scare tactics on both sides.

Reply:

Apparently you either do not know the definition of the word “ALL” or you did not actually look at the references that anchor this commentary on influenza morbidity and mortality. The majority - nearly 75% - of the references in this commentary are from independent sources, which is the opposite of what you have stated in your comment. Specifically, in this commentary, 23 out of 46 references (50%) are linked to CDC, FDA, NIH or medical literature sources. 11 out of the 46 references (24%) are media articles that advertise or promote influenza vaccines and/or quote doctors or public health officials promoting influenza vaccinations. Only 9 out of the 46 references (20%) link to commentaries, articles or web pages published by NVIC, which themselves contain references to independent sources of information.

Thank you for the research and your thoughtful comments. My wife got the flu shot in 2010 because she wanted to do volunteer work at the hospital in our town. The hospital strongly encouraged all employeees and volunteers to get the shot. She went into a comma for nearly a month, then spent over 3 monts in rehab learning how to eat, walk, get dressed, basically everything. I battled the neurologists daily for nearly four weeks, trying to get them to at least consider the flu vaccine as the cause of my wife's condition. Even though they did not give her the shot, and even though it was given at a different hospital, all of the doctors were extremely defensive avout the vaccine. After every test known to man was conducted and came back negative they finally came to the conclusion that my wife was having a reaction to the vaccine. The attending neurolgist said to me, "your wife's immune system has been attacking her brain.". We' recently won our claim through the vaccine court. We are greatful for that, but recognize that the only way to hold the pharma cos, Drs, and all of the phamacies and other retailers accountable is to eliminate the legal protection they are provided. If settlements were not capped at such low levels, I think the flu vaccine craze would end.

Please share your thoughts with others who are uninformed and only listen to their Doctors and the Media. Pinterest is extremely popular and you can "pin" articles from any website or personal pics you want! Wonderful way to put this in Peoples Faces and Make them Take Notice! Just google "Pinterest" and create an account. I am on there and and "pin" vaccine awareness information and GMO information all the time. If you'd like an invite to my "board" just let me know your email and I am happy to send you an invitation so you can look around. It is awesome and you can save recipes from websites, etc. But more people are needed on there to start a stir and educate them.Thank youMistymistymfreeman@rocketmail.com

Hello~ Just wanted to thank you for the research and this article. I am currently employed at a medical facility that is mandating the flu shot for all employees. Failure to comply will lead to termination. I am baffled how someone can force me to put a substance into my body that I choose not to have. I have never received the vaccine and have never had anything more than a minor head cold. I n my opinion, proper nutrition, hydration and handwashing are sufficient prevention strategies. Unfortunaley, I need my job and will have to comply with these mandates from my "at will" employer! I pray that I have no serious effects from this "virus" entering my body. What's next from these "at will" employers???

My daughter ( an RN )is being put through the ringer at the hospital where they are mandating the flu shot. She has put her reasons for declining in a letter and has gone through her first round of questions and is set to go before a board of some kind in about a week. She was armed with some good documentation from both your site and even some of the information from the CDC stating the not so beneficial facts about the shot. She also had a letter from her pastor and a few Bible verses that she used to state her case. If approved, she'll have to where a mask the whole 12 hour shift and sign a waiver that basically states she is aware that she is putting all her patients at risk of getting the flu. Our government is getting too big. We are all guinea pigs.

My daughter, an RN, is having to go before a hospital committee to obtain a waiver for the mandated flu shot. It is quite a process. She went to the first of several inquisitions armed with research from your site and a few Bible verses and letter from her pastor. This MI based hospital is really making it difficult for any employee to opt out of the flu vaccine. It is hard to believe that we are being forced to put chemicals in to our bodies to keep a job.

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for providing yet another really interesting article. As before, I feel like there is solid evidence for the benefits that these vaccines have provided. Though, I do feel that making vaccinations mandatory is not the right move to make. This is a free country right? A parent should not have to jump through hoops just because they don't want their own child vaccinated.

I would like to have had ms. Fisher include the dangerous ingredients in her video even though we know already. But maybe a newcomer is wondering what's so dangerous about flu vaccines? After extensive research into all vaccines, I have come to the conclusion that all vaccines are dangerous and that the majority of people are brain washed by the media, the CDC, the doctors and Big Pharma into believing their BS. I wish people would simply ask themselves who is profitting? Big Pharma, of course! Everybody wants to avoid dementia and Alzheimer's and NOT getting a flu shot is in my mind (and supported by honest doctors)the MOST important step in preventing these diseases. I am sure there are other causes, I am aware of this, but I am sure that the chief culprit is the flu shot and the mercury in at least 80 percent of these cases. My hairdresser's husband got the flu every year after getting his flu shot. 3 years ago he died from a very agressive brain tumor. Coincidence? I don't think so.

May God continue to richly bless you and all your generations to come. I love those in the medical field who truly cares about there patients health instead of caring more about the medical prestige and money. There should be more like you. I am trying hard to find a pediatrician like you. Instead of finding doctors who bluntly say vaccines are safe and carries no risk, and looks at you as if your are subhuman to say you will avoid some vaccines or all vaccines. I can say since I witheld my sons vaccines who no longer gets frequent colds and ear infections. However, he his still suffering from eczema which started a week after his 2 months shots, and then exploded and spread to all over his body when he recieved his 4 months shots. After that, i said no shots. His blood tests came back negative for food allergies, so that means he is must be allergic to the very make and adjuvated antigen of the vaccine or the formaldehyde, phenosol, or aluminum in the vaccine. I know when I use certain deodorants i get swollen lymph nodes under my arm pits. So yes, one can be allergic to aluminum, especially when it is attached to protein, injected into muscle tissues and then circulates in ones blood. Aluminum is never meant to circulate into ones blood stream, neither is animal DNA or other strange human DNA not meant to be mixed with yours. God knows what disaster waiting to happen if a stray animal virus, or a defective animal or human DNA protien that gets entrance into someone else's blood stream.SIV= Siemien(monkey)immune deficiency virus. HIV = human immune deficiency virus. Can someone explain how the SIV mutates into HIV. So, that's why it is not wise to inject animal DNA into human body. Maybe it is out of pure neglegience, ignorance or pure evil. either way it is wrong.

If production of most vaccines were not heavily subsidized by the US govt the drug companies would not produce them. A good thing, you say? If the facts are considered dispassionately it is clear that vaccines are one of the most important factors for reducing child mortality and increasing life expectancy. Why wouldn't private companies produce them on their own, then? Not enough money to be made! There is more money in treating erectile dysfunction.

It is scary to see so many misinformed vaccine pushers who spouts beliefs rather than facts or science and is probably worried about corporate benefits over the real science and the dangers of our over-hyped and completely over the top vaccine program. Obviously they also did not read the data published as recently as this week showing that the USA has one of the HIGHEST infant mortality rates in the developed world and we also have the most aggressive vaccination programs anywhere in the world. Vaccines do not make people healthy and in fact the risks far outweigh the benefits in most. A classic fail is the flu vax this year. Health care workers were forced by the thousands to take the toxic cocktail of a useless vaccine or lose their jobs this year (another story that has an ugly money trail following it and not the safety of patients as they claim to out) making it one of the years that a higher number of people were vaccinated, yet we hear of a rampant flu epidemic and mostly within the vaccinated community. The funniest part is the drums are still beating and the scare tactics and the media hype still on to make people rush to get the vaccine that clearly DOES NOT work this year. Putting corporate profits ahead of real dangers of vaccines should be illegal but the perpetrators have the govt agencies in their pockets too, so they are pretty well shielded and laugh all the way to the bank while leaving a trail of woe behind. Medical professionals who are paid in one way or the other or any agency who has any sort of financial interest in vaccine companies SHOULD NOT be allowed to mandate and tout vaccines for us because that is a serious conflict of interest. The people are waking up to the vaccine hoax, and thank you publishing this very well written and researched article.

This is very informative & I appreciate the sources. However, these comments are anything BUT educational. Everyone says they "know of someone" who for a flu shot & then "caught" the flu actually FROM the vaccine. This is not possible in any way, shape, or form. There are *some* bad timing situations, especially in the elderly & those with weakened immune systems;but science does not support these claims. I'm not talking about the drug companies now, most of them can kick rocks! (By the way, not the scientists who create life-saving medicines/vaccines, but the marketing departments etc.) I'm a scientific proof kind of girl & a lot of things in these comments are more fear-mongering than what the pharmaceutical industry puts out there. I wish I had time to address them all, but I don't have the time & the rumor that flu vaccines can "give you the flu is just simply U.N.T.R.U.E. & not based on scientific fact. Just be careful, everybody. With much respect, Natalie